Total bridges
132
Public highway bridges in Suffolk city County
County profile · official public datasets
Suffolk city County, VA
132 public highway bridges tracked in the FHWA National Bridge Inventory: 25.8% rated Good, 69.7% Fair, 4.5% Poor.
- 132
- Public bridges
- 25.8%
- Good condition
- 4.5%
- Poor condition
The verdict
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory.
Suffolk city County pairs a higher-than-median Poor-condition share among rated counties in the state with a newer average build year than the state inventory.
- 80th
- of 129 on Poor share
- 4.5%
- Poor-condition share
- 132
- public highway bridges
- 1981
- avg year built
Poor is an FHWA condition category from the lowest applicable component rating (4 or below), not a live crossing-safety or closure decision. Rankings cover counties with at least five public highway bridges.
Suffolk city County Bridge Snapshot
According to the Federal Highway Administration's 2024 National Bridge Inventory, Suffolk city County ranks #80 of 129 Virginia counties with at least 5 public highway bridges on Poor-condition share (lower share ranks better; currently 4.5%). Suffolk city County, Virginia contains 132 public highway bridges. Roughly 25.8% are rated “Good,” 69.7% “Fair,” and 4.5% “Poor.” Poor means the lowest applicable deck, superstructure, substructure, or culvert rating is 4 or below on the 0–9 NBI scale. It is a condition category, not a live safety or closure decision.
Responsible agencies inspect covered bridges on risk-based intervals under current NBIS rules and submit inventory data to FHWA annually. The list below shows every NBI-tracked bridge in the county. Use the “Sort by” controls to change the ordering, and click any row for its reported inspection date, traffic count, and condition fields.
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory. See methodology for full definitions.
Good condition
25.8%
34 of 132 rated 7-9
Fair condition
69.7%
92 of 132 rated 5-6
Poor condition
4.5%
6 of 132 rated 4 or below
In-state Poor-share rank
#80 of 129
Among Virginia counties with 5+ bridges, lower share ranks better
Condition distribution
Share of 132 NBI-tracked bridges by lowest applicable component rating.
Good 25.8% (34)
Fair 69.7% (92)
Poor 4.5% (6)
Suffolk city County's Poor-condition bridges carry 8,898 vehicle crossings a day
That is 0.7% of the county's reported daily bridge traffic on 4.5% of its bridges: Poor-condition structures carry less traffic than their share of the inventory. Each Poor bridge averages 1,483 crossings a day against 4,853 for a Good-condition one. A Poor rating is a condition category, not a closure or a live safety judgement; it means the lowest applicable component rating is 4 or below.
Computed over the 132 of 132 bridges in this county that report an average daily traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
45.5% of Suffolk city County's bridges have passed the 50-year mark
60 of the 132 bridges with a recorded construction year were built in 1974 or earlier. Age alone is not a defect: a well-maintained older bridge can rate Good, and 25.8% of this county's inventory does. Even so, this older cohort is the population from which future Poor ratings are drawn, which is why the age profile below matters alongside the condition split above.
Cutoff derives from the 2024 release year minus a 50-year design life. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
One structure carries 62.9% of the county's Poor-condition bridge traffic
Nansemond Parkway over Beamons Mill Pond, built 1920, carries 5,593 vehicles a day, the most of any Poor-rated structure here. The county's Poor-condition exposure is concentrated rather than evenly spread, so the 6-bridge count understates how much of the daily burden sits on a single crossing.
Share is of the 8,898 daily crossings on Poor-rated bridges that report a traffic count. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
When Suffolk city County's bridges were built
132 bridges with a recorded construction year, grouped by decade
- 1920s 2
1920–1929
2 bridges
- 1930s 4
1930–1939
4 bridges
- 1940s 4
1940–1949
4 bridges
- 1950s 7
1950–1959
7 bridges
- 1960s
1960–1969
16 bridges
- 1970s
1970–1979
35 bridges
- 1980s 13
1980–1989
13 bridges
- 1990s
1990–1999
23 bridges
- 2000s
2000–2009
14 bridges
- 2010s 9
2010–2019
9 bridges
- 2020s 5
2020–2029
5 bridges
What this shows Construction peaked in the 1970s, when 35 of the county's bridges still in the inventory were built, which is 26.5% of those with a recorded year. That cohort is now 45 to 54 years old in the 2024 inventory. Its average build year is 1981, 7 years newer than the Virginia average of 1974.
How Suffolk city County compares with Virginia's closest counties by inventory size
The 5 Virginia counties nearest Suffolk city County in number of bridges, with their condition splits. Its 4.5% Poor share is the 4th-lowest of these 6. Its average build year of 1981 against a peer-group mean of 1970 is 11 years newer.
Showing the 5 closest of 128 Virginia counties eligible for comparison.
| County | Bridges | Good | Fair | Poor | Avg. built |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scott County | 138 | 20.3% | 71.7% | 8% | 1968 |
| Nelson County | 136 | 37.5% | 58.1% | 4.4% | 1968 |
| Russell County | 136 | 28.7% | 65.4% | 5.9% | 1968 |
| Henry County | 135 | 25.2% | 74.8% | 0% | 1972 |
| Prince George County | 132 | 6.8% | 88.6% | 4.5% | 1975 |
| Suffolk city County (this page) | 132 | 25.8% | 69.7% | 4.5% | 1981 |
Each share is of that county's own total tracked bridges; peers are the counties with 5 or more bridges whose inventory size is closest to Suffolk city County's. Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release.
Nationwide counties with similar inventory size or average build year
Two NBI-derived peer sets for Suffolk city County, both outside Virginia so the neighborhoods are not the same-state size table above.
Similar inventory size
Nearest county inventories outside VA (132 bridges here).
- Kendall County, IL · 132 bridges
- Massac County, IL · 132 bridges
- Monroe County, IL · 132 bridges
- St. Joseph County, MI · 132 bridges
Similar average build year
Nearest mean year-built outside VA (1981 here).
- Franklin County, OH · avg 1981 · 922 bridges
- Greenville County, SC · avg 1981 · 635 bridges
- Montgomery County, OH · avg 1981 · 632 bridges
- McLean County, IL · avg 1981 · 624 bridges
Source: FHWA National Bridge Inventory, 2024 release. Peers floor at 10 bridges so stub inventories cannot own the match.
Poor-condition bridges (6)
Pittmantown Road
PoorOver: Mill Swamp
0.10 MI.FR.N.C.STATE LINE, Suffolk city, VA
Built 1950 Load: 5.5 t ADT: 67
FREEMAN MILL RD.
PoorOver: SPIVEY SWAMP
0.30 TO 616_/ O.60 TO 671, Suffolk city, VA
Built 1954 Load: 8.6 t ADT: 587
Turlington Road
PoorOver: Kilby Creek Spillway
1.10 TO 58 / 1.00 TO 685, Suffolk city, VA
Built 1957 Load: 14.5 t ADT: 2,327
Nansemond Parkway
PoorOver: Beamons Mill Pond
8.31 MI.FR.WCL CHESAPEAKE, Suffolk city, VA
Built 1920 Load: 18.3 t ADT: 5,593
Roundtree Crescent
PoorOver: Cypress Swamp
0.30 TO 673 / 2.60 TO 32, Suffolk city, VA
Built 1980 Load: 19.0 t ADT: 97
Longstreet Lane
PoorOver: Somerton Creek
0.80 TO 668 / 0.50 TO 667, Suffolk city, VA
Built 1968 Load: 20.6 t ADT: 227
Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.
Related
Data sourced from official public datasets. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainBridges
Every figure on PlainBridges is rendered directly from federal source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on federal source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. NBI condition categories reflect the latest reported inventory record, not a live safety, closure, or travel decision.